U.N. Threatens Sanctions Against Sudan

The U.N. Security Council approved a resolution Saturday threatening sanctions against Sudan unless it acts to rein in Arab militias accused of violence in Darfur that the United States has called genocide.
The vote was 11-0 with four abstentions, by China, Russia, Pakistan and Algeria.

Those countries opposed sanctions and several other provisions that they said could antagonize the Sudanese government and end its cooperation with international efforts to cope with the massive humanitarian crisis in Sudan's western region of Darfur.

The resolution strongly endorses the deployment of a beefed-up African Union force with an expanded monitoring mission that would actively try to prevent attacks and mediate to stop the conflict from escalating. More than 50,000 people have already died and over 1.2 million have fled their homes to escape the violence.
It also authorizes Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites), who was in the council chamber for the vote, to rapidly appoint an international commission to investigate reports of human rights violations in Darfur and determine "whether or not acts of genocide have occurred."

The approval of the resolution came a day after Annan called for immediate U.N. action to halt attacks against civilians in western Darfur, which he said were continuing despite the government's promise to rein in the marauding militias. The United States, which introduced the resolution, revised it three times, each time softening language to try to get broader support and avert a threatened Chinese veto. Beijing failed to persuade the United States to make further changes but decided to abstain after a last-minute meeting between U.S. Ambassador John Danforth and China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=3&u=/ap/20040918/ap_on_re_mi_ea/un_sudan

...

People in Darfur had hoped that once it became clear the attacks against civilians had not stopped, the UN would impose sanctions or other punitive measures against Sudan. But instead, the UN Security Council effectively gave the government more time, saying unless the killing stops, the UN "shall consider taking additional measures ... such as actions to affect Sudan's petroleum sector."

...

Inside Darfur, people have no doubt that they are victims of an organised attempt to destroy them. They claim the Sudanese government has continued to support the Janjaweed, even while it promised the international community that it was trying its hardest to rein them in. Abdel Molah, said: "A few days before the Janjaweed and helicopters came to attack my village, some people came to us and said - we will send you blacks away and take this land. There are many riches in the earth and we shall make it ours." Molah's parents and five brothers were killed in two separate Janjaweed attacks in April and August. He has now fled to Chad with his wife and three children, and insists he will not return unless the government changes. "This government does not want blacks in Darfur, only Arabs," he insisted. "As long as they are in charge, we cannot be safe." Others barely understand the politics that are destroying their lives.

More than 50,000 people have been killed in the conflict, and the World Health Organisation has estimated that at least 10,000 people are still dying in Darfur each month as a result of violence and disease.

The families of the bereaved do not care what wording the UN uses against Sudan, as long as the killings stop. Mariam Ayacoub's four sons were shot by the Janjaweed as they slept inside the family's compound in August. Still mad with grief, she looks blank when asked about the UN. "I don't know who they are," she said, rocking back and forth. "My children are dead. I don't know anything else. Maybe God knows. I don't."

UN shies away from action to stop massacres in Darfur....

as the Israeli intelligence newsletter Debka-Net-Weekly had feared in February of this year:

>> ... One unmentioned upshot of the Bush administration’s ventures in Iraq, Sudan and Libya is to bring those countries’ oil resources under American control while concomitantly weakening OPEC. The teams preparing the Bush tour will bill it as a major feather in the presidential cap and a centerpiece of his campaign trail.

(...)

Sudan’s natural resources were just as much an issue in the civil conflict as ethnic and religious causes and equally promise to be the key to its future prosperity. In January 2003, this Nile state’s proven oil resources stood at 563 m barrels. Output of 300,000 bpd is expected to rise to an estimated 450,000 in 2005 once the country is pacified and rebel attacks on oil installations a thing of the past.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly reports that designating Garang vice president is part of the arrangement governing the disposition of Sudan’s oil. The Abyai district will come under “presidential” control on the basis of half and half shares in national oil resources between Bashir and Garang.

In more than one respect, the Sudanese peace and power-sharing pact could be an even more effective campaign booster than Qaddafi’s repentance. The Christians, who make up a quarter of Sudan’s population of 37 million, were long supported by conservative Christian groups in the United States whose votes Bush will be soliciting. Their championship will be vindicated by a settlement that gives the Christian minority of Sudan the victory of a place in the sun.

(...)

If the US president has his way, the White House lawn will be fully booked this year with ceremonies centering on the Sudanese reconciliation, which he rates more highly than the Israel-Palestinian handshake hosted by Bill Clinton eleven years ago.

(...) <<

Seems this agenda has been thoroughly thwarted.

http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=778


"Spreading US influence under Bush masterplan":